Refinishing the table

I have several days refinishing this table and I'm not as good at it as I used to be but it still ended up pretty nice. It actually turned out to be quite an extensive project. Whatever they had used to finish it was really easy to scratch. After several coats of polyurethane and lacquer along with a lot of sanding its now very, very shiny. I'm not sure I want to try it again anytime soon though.

Behind the scenes, Jacquie Wentworth.

It's always interesting to find out where an idea for a character comes from. Each of the characters in Rip Tide has some basis in something else. The particular character, Jackie Wentworth, is one of the intended victims once Jack the Ripper possesses my antagonist, Phineas Smith, who is an author.

One of those origins would be, "Tomorrow We'll See," by Sting. It was on the album, "Brand New Day," the  same one that, "Desert Rose," came on.  Anyways, "Tomorrow We'll See is an interesting song that you should listen to some time and here's a live version of it that is on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gh8sy9cyrqQ

Here's the lyrics by themselves:

http://www.elyrics.net/read/s/sting-lyrics/tomorrow-we_ll-see-lyrics.html

Sting is in drag plying the world's oldest trade in this song and he goes in depth about it. I don't think I'll ever forget the surprise of listening to the song the first time and I realized what the lyrics meant. Of course, I turned the character into something radically different by the time I was done. The original idea mixed with other things like an inferiority complex and my character just happens to be a transsexual. It made for a character that was truly different and just like Sting states about his song, Jacquie was a little outside of my comfort zone but if you don't push your limits you don't find out what your potential is.

We are also having an e-book fair and it would be nice if you would stop in. https://www.facebook.com/events/381254251993089/

A little about the e-book fair.

Have you attended the Virtual Ebook Fair? If not, what are you waiting for? This event is taking the Internet by storm. In just a few months it's become a favorite hang out for readers and authors alike as they mingle and chat. Started as part of bestselling author, Tammie Clarke Gibbs' launch for her latest release, SWORN TO SECRECY, a time-travel romance, the Virtual Ebook Fair quickly became an event everyone is looking forward to.

Traditional book fairs have always been a favorite for booklovers, now you can attend one and meet new and new to you authors as well as some of your favorites without spending for admission fees and gas to get to the event and while there's nothing that can take the place of meeting authors in person there are many benefits to attending in your pjs from the comfort of your own home.

Originally, a one-day Saturday event, the Virtual Ebook Fair is now held over two days beginning each week on Friday and running through Saturday at 10 pm est.

Each author has their own booth, and some have more than one where they share a short excerpt from their ebooks/books and then give you a link where you can read more or buy the book and visit their website/blogs. In addition to the excerpts, many share funny accounts of the writing process and interact with visitors in a fun way.

You can enter to win giveaway e-books by subscribing to the brand-new Reader's Rock emagazine that will launch in June. The subscription is currently free and gives you one entry for each week's giveaways. You only have to register once. In addition, authors often give out coupons for free e-books or run one or two-day sales on their e-books.

If you really love to read, you'll love this event, and it just gets better and better. Growing by leaps and bounds, it promises to continue to be one of the hottest destinations for booklovers around. What are you waiting for JOIN the event today?!

Blog - http://www.virtualebookfair.com

Blog - http://www.readersrockmagazine.com

Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/VirtualEbookFair

Event Page Link for this weekend: https://www.facebook.com/events/381254251993089/

Rip Tide, Ch 1 Excerpt

Turning the corner quickly he ran into a Bobbie just about knocking him over.

The officer studied him carefully with narrowed eyes, “you’re really in a hurry this early morning aren’t you?”

“Ah, yes I am.”

“Are you in a hurry to get home to the better half maybe?”

“I just might be at that.”

“Well, you don’t look like you’ve had too much to drink or I’d have to take you in just maybe.”

“No need for that officer. I’m quite sober.” He involuntarily looked down at his front as he hoped there wasn’t any blood splatter showing on his coat. While he had been careful to start on the opposite side of her neck to bleed her out some could have gotten on his clothes.

“Can’t be too careful in this neighborhood and you need to slow down a little.”

His attention wavered a moment as he observed a woman who was lying on the sidewalk appearing to be asleep. Next to her, a child had their head nestled on the woman’s forearm. Both were wearing ragged clothes that had seen better days. Obviously, they hadn’t been able to come up with the four pence for a room for the night that was common in the area’s doss houses. He tapped the woman’s foot with his Billie club, “hey, love are you okay there?”

“Yes, I’ll slow it down from now on. I like to take walks early in the morning when the streets are almost empty as it helps me to think.”

The Bobbie only nodded as an unintelligible grunt escaped from the woman as she turned in her sleep and opened her eyes. The child nestled on her arm moaned softly.

Sighing, the Bobbie looked at Jeremy, “well, be off now with you and watch where you’re going.”

Realizing he just got lucky he continued on his way down the street, “good day to you man.” He resisted the urge of stopping at the next doorway and watching the Bobbie as he made his rounds. Then he heard indistinct shouts from the street he had just walked down. Checking over his shoulder surreptitiously he picked up the pace now that he seemed to be out of sight. There was no telling when the cop would put two and two together and would figure out where he had been.

The book, "Rip Tide," can be found here:

In Kindle: http://amzn.to/1ad71Qa

In Print: http://amzn.to/16rmvUA

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/18x95WP

Kobo: http://bit.ly/ZfWQsk

Smashwords: http://bit.ly/ZfWX7h

We are also having an e-book fair and it would be nice if you would stop in. https://www.facebook.com/events/381254251993089/

You could stop by here also: 

http://www.virtualebookfair.com/

E-book Fair

We all had a lot of fun last Saturday, and when you have a lot of fun, you want to do it all over again. You know what's even better? No hangover in the morning. As far as I'm aware you can't get drunk from books. When I'm writing and one of my characters is hungover, I feel it also. I actually feel everything they feel which can be quite disturbing at times.

However, last Saturday if you're a book junkie you were able to get your fix. Well, we're going to give you the opportunity to get your fix again. We'll set you right up. We're now up to 165 authors though don't know how many will be posting, I for sure will be. This Saturday, once you find my thread, I'll be reading an excerpt from Rip Tide which I'll also post. You'll actually get to see what I sound and look like.

http://on.fb.me/Zefzol

Reader's Rock Magazine

For all of you book junkies out there. There's a new e-magazine coming out and it's put together by a dear friend, Tammie Clarke Gibbs. (Psst, she's the one that designed the banner for this blog) The magazine is going to be free for readers, all you have to do is sign up for it. I've seen some of the page layouts and it looks beautiful. http://www.readersrockmagazine.com/

Memorial Day

For me, Memorial Day is always a special day. I get to talk with the ghosts of the fallen ones. Many of them were sent to places they didn't really want to go and they had to leave their families behind. Sometimes, they never returned which left a terrible hole in those families. Still, they served with pride and they deserve to be remembered so please do so this Memorial Day.

Now I don't want to get into politics of any wars, that's for our leaders to consider and I wish they would, their actions have consequences. Unfortunately, far too often, they don't.